…musings from a mama in med school

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Monthly Archives: November 2014

Benjamin is becoming a pro at picking up new animal sounds. His menagerie now includes: snake, dog, sheep, and sometimes a monkey and cow (if he is really focused).

Med school update: Our renal exam was changed at the last moment to an open-book test, but it was far from easy (I think I spent about 3.5 hours on those 56 questions). Renal is now history and I could not be happier. I actually loved learning about the kidneys, but decided that they are much too complex to study for just one week.

Our next sequence is musculoskeletal which means we’ll be clocking many hours in the cadaver lab. I’m psyched! 🙂

I am working on getting more sleep this week because I know it helps me study so much more efficiently. But I also need to/want to take my exam on Friday. Sleep and testing early aren’t always the most compatible priorities.

John has been Super Dad the past three weekends when I’ve had to study (see below)… so I’ve resolved to just take the quiz Friday regardless of how ill-prepared I may feel. (Say a prayer for me!)

(these are all pictures he texted me when I was studying… it makes studying 1,000x better.)

I have been told from time to time in the last few months that I am trying to play superwoman. Isn’t every parent superhuman?? This week, no less than three people have mentioned that phrase, “playing superwoman” in passing. I am not sure whether to feel good or bad about it.

But I have been thinking a lot about my priorities lately. My top ones are easy to keep straight:

1. Ben. I spend every morning with him from wakeup (7ish) until daycare dropoff (8:45ish) most days. And every evening from around 5 until bedtime (7:30ish). I feel lucky that my schedule allows this much quality time (so long as I’m willing to sacrifice sleep, I suppose). Many parents don’t have this luxury, and I know I will have times in my training and career where I do not, although I will protect it as fiercely as I can.

2. John. (He is really also a #1, but you know…) Truth be told, he has been neglected lately by his medical student wife. But I couldn’t possibly ask for a more supportive husband. He is simply AMAZING.

3. Family & friends. Definitely high priority, but I am working on this. Especially the friends part. It’s a good problem to have I guess–too many people you love and not enough time to see and spend time and talk with them all as often as one would hope.

4. School. It is hard as hell due to the vast amount of stuff that must be crammed into the brain, but somehow I still love every minute of it. Well, nearly every minute of it.

………………………………………

Ben has croup (a horrible deep chest cough) and it is just awful. He was up Sat & Sun night coughing every few minutes through the night. Poor little nugget. Here is are some pics and 3 videos from our time together home sick today. Some of the time he was pretty inconsolable, but whenever I said, “Ben, do you want mommy to rock you like a little baby?” he would stop his sad crying and come crawl into my arms. Made my heart melt. And after his nap he was so sleepy that he fell asleep on my lap. I can’t even remember the last time he fell asleep in my arms, so I let him take an hour-long nap all cuddled up with me.

Randomly, in a less than graceful moment, I fell down our stairs on Sunday and bruised my tailbone. So I can’t even tell you how painful it was to sit there with him on my lap this afternoon… But I never even thought twice about moving him. It was way, way too precious. Being a parent is so warped.

We have a feeling that Benjamin will soon be picking up new words like a sponge everyday. These ones took a little longer to get, but they are some of the firsts. And I never, ever want to forget them.